In the labour camp, we had to tip our caps to the dogs or else they would bite us
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Jiří Kleker was born on the 20th of June in 1929. He grew up in a poor family in Šárovcova Lhota in the Hořice region and his father died when Jiří was five years old. He apprenticed as a blacksmith and he worked as such for several years. In 1947, he got married but a year later, he decided to escape to the West. He did not manage to do so, he was arrested by the police and sentenced to two years of forced labour in the Zápotocký mine in Doubí in the Kladno coal mining region. He escaped from there after a few months and he spent more than a year in hiding. He was arrested during his other attempt to illegally cross the borders in Zittau in Germany. He spent the major part of his prison term in the uranium mines in Jáchymov. After having served in the army, he got married and along with his wife and his two children, they lived in Frýdlant. He died in Frýdlant on the 22nd of October in 2022.